Zoltán Balázs gave a hard task to the actors of Maladype Theatre, and then we have not mentioned the viewers and the critics; Leonce and Lena, which he directed, requires a unique concentration from both the actors and the viewers. In the Studio of Bárka Theatre, 8 black dressed actors greets us. The viewers can follow the play sitting on the two long sides, which is going on, on a wrestling mat like, rectangular area. On the two shorter sides we can see bamboo sticks with different length, the performance does not use any other set, costume or properties.

The director appears at the beginning and tells us the rules of the game. From him we can learn that the text of Leonce and Lena by Georg Büchner consists of 25 scenes, but all of them have three more versions, which have been made by different casts. Therefore, the scenario consists of 100 scenes all together. The public can choose between them, they can tell that beside the version, which was chosen by the director, which one they would like to watch. If we get lost in the story, we can ask for help from the director, who follows the performance from the background.

Georg Büchner’s play according to the interpretation of Maladpye Theatre is about the practice of power, and about the unavoidable nature and impossibility of choice based on love. They are bored youngsters, the descendants of two neighbouring little principalities, who have escaped from one another, tried to avoid marriage, up until they have run into each other’s arms. Par excellence it is existentialism some decades before Kierkegaard’s eternal sentences: “Get married, you will regret it; do not get married, you will regret it too; get married or not, you will regret both; whether you get married or not, you will regret both of them. Laugh at the silly things of the world, you will regret it; or cry because of them, you will regret it too; laugh at or cry because of the silly things of the world, you will regret both; whether you laugh at the silly things of the world or cry because of them, you will regret both of them.”

The main aim of the performance is not to interpret its text (of course, it cannot be missed), or to help us follow the happenings. Who is interested in Leonce and Lena by Büchner had better get the book from the shelf. The performing is determined more by the director’s aim that want to get the human body involved in the actions on stage. It is similar to the watching of a dramatized album of anatomy: all parts of the body from the foot, through the anus and groin until the top of the actors’ head have their roles. It is natural if the actors tell the text sitting or standing on each other’s neck, balancing with a stick in their hands. The showing of spiritual processes happens with the set of properties of culture of movement: in one scene, young Leonce sticks like a leech onto his master’s back, thigh and stomach to escape from the unwanted marriage. The body is the important one, and its tools and aims are the humiliation and love, the love desire and rejection, rudeness and devotion. Leonce monologue was the top moment of the version, which I watched, which was said by the eight actors at the same time. This performance requires a physical readiness, which is rarely to be seen on Hungarian stages, from Éva Bakos, Kamilla Fátyol, Hermina Fátyol, Katalin Simkó, Ákos Orosz, Zoltán Papp, Zsolt Pál and Ádám Tompa.

Maladype left the traditions radically behind: they reject the interpretation with the text in the middle, instead of it; their aim is to create their own individual theatrical language, which is similar to total theatre. This language is sensitive as well as to the smallest movements of human bodies as the songs by Péter Máté or Britney Spears, played by Kornél Mogyoró with the help of eastern-sounding percussion instruments. One of the merit of the performance that it can make viewers accept the roles of the bamboo sticks, which can help the actors’ concentration, stand in for the sets and properties, as much as we would see a well-furnished salon on the stage.

Zoltán Balázs may have chosen Leonce and Lena because its story is clear and easy to follow, because of its poetic dialogues it is a perfect material for a performance, which imagine theatre as an action of interdisciplinary art. Moreover, it is not too well-known, so they do not have to take into consideration the viewers’ prejudices in connection with the play. The direction is based on singing, text and movement, and from them the latest one become the most defining one. The first one between the equals. In a lucky situation, the material above would be in harmony with each other, but there are scenes, where the acrobatic and artistic tricks suppress the text and the dramatic situation.

I think that the present location is not the most suitable to fulfil entirely the director’s conception. Meanwhile not only the actors’ work leave the traditions, but the side of acceptors gets a bigger freedom and possibility of choice. As the performance is long, the viewers can go out anytime in theory to get some fresh air or get a drink, and then they can return if they want to, but in reality, it does not work. In the airless Studio of Bárka Theatre only the leaving would work maximum, in this crowded place, followed by the others’ look, we are afraid of disturbing the actors, I do not think that anybody would return even if they liked what they had seen.

We can see an inventive, adventurous try, the fate of which is influenced mostly by the audience’s reaction, which changes from evening to evening, and by the fact if they managed to find that location, where the relationship between actors and viewers can happen in a more intensive way.

Szabolcs Szekeres, Kritika, 2008

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)